Rock breaker



Sept. l2, 1944. s. J. MoRRlssEY ROCK BREAKER Filed May 4, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet l Syvum/nm rePHN J. Mozausev GMM/mag Sept- 12, 1944- s. .1. MoRRlssEY 2,357,843

ROCK BREAKER Filed May 4, 1942 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 STEPHEN J. Mozrelaser fig .4'. *I 53W Chiu-v Patented Sept. 12, 1944 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE Roon Bananen stephen J. Morrissey, Rapid city, s. naa Application May 4, 1942,seria1 No. 441,577

(ci. iis-4c) 3 Claims.

This invention relates to improvements in rock breakers or apparatus for breaking and disintegrating rocks and other materials.

'Ihe primary object of the invention is to provide a breaker of this nature in an extremely simple, durable and inexpensive form and employing an operating principle not only providing for large capacity or output, but which also supplies a superior product. Another object is to provide a rock breaker embodying a rotor or impeller into which the raw material is fed and from whichsuch material is thrown with great force in an outward direction against a surrounding anvil ring or breaker member in such manner as to shatter the product by impact. A iurther object is to provide a rock breaker in which very little wear will be present, considering the nature of the work being done'and the material being worked on, and which has numerous advantages in both operation and the\ character of its finished product, making it adaptable to a wide variety of uses.

These and other more detailedand speciiic objects will be disclosed in the course of the following specication, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Fig. 1 is a vertical cross sectional view through the main housing and other partsof my rock breaker, certain interior parts being shown in side elevation.

Fig. 2 is a horizontal sectional view along the line 2-2 in Fig. 1. 7

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the rock breaker with certain parts partially removed or broken away to better disclose interior construction.

Fig. 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional view through a mid-portion of the rockimpeller or rotor anddriving elements therefor.

Fig. 5 is a plan view, partially broken away, of a modified form of impeller or rotor.

Referring now more particularly and by reference characters to the drawings. the main outer housing member of my rock breaker is indicated generally at 6, same being in the form 0f a cylindrical shel1 or casing having an open upper end 1 and a lowerrend plate 8 in which is formed a square or rectilinear discharge opening 9. A heavy bracing and reinforcingv bandy Ill is secured rigidly around the exterior peripheral surface of the casing at the upper end portion thereof and to this band are secured, as by Welding, a series of upwardly extending threaded studs II by means of which a top cover plate I2 may be removably secured over the open end 1. Said Acover plate of course is larger than the casing 6 and is suitably apertured to pass the studs II upon which nuts I3 may be screwed down to force the plate against the casing end. A feed opening Il of circular shape is formed in the center of the cover plate I2 and surmounting the plate is a hopper I5 which may be used to feed the raw material through said opening to the interior of the casing. Any other form of feeding means may of course be employed in lieu of the hopper.

Arranged within the upper end of the casing is a rock impeller, rotor, or centrifuge designated generally at |6 and which constitutes the moving element of the breaker. This element `as shown in Figs. 1 through 4 is of circular shape having upper and lower circular disk-like plates I1 and I8 supported'in vertically spaced and parallel positions, and a receiving, opening I 9 in said upper plate disposed immediately beneath the feed opening i4. The receiving opening is circular and slightly larger than the feed open ing in crder to loosely receive a short tubular throat piece 20 which is secured in and depends from opening M. Vanes or guide blades 2| are secured between the upper and lower rotor plates I1 and I8 by means of tie bolts 22, 22 passed vertically through the plates and the ends of each vane, and said vanes are radially disposed and of such length that their outer ends 23 will fall substantially flush with thel edges of the rotor plates while their Iinner ends 24 terminate about in vertical alignment with the margin of the receiving opening I9.

A circular wear plate 25 of manganese steel or similar wear and abrasive resistant material is secured atop the lower rotor plate |8, being held thereon by the tie bolts 22 and the vanes 2| of course rest on this plate as clearly shown. 'I'his wear plate has an upwardly convexed or rounded center portion 2B of avdiameter substantially the same asthat of receiving opening I9. The vanes 2| are also of wear and abrasive resisting material such as manganese steel for a reason which will presently appear.

The rotor I6 is mounted, supported and operated by an upright spindle 21 which is arranged coaxially in the casing Sand supported in and through a narrow strut or crossmember 28 welded, or otherwise secured, diametrically within the casing. This strut carries an upright tubular bearing sleeve 29' (Fig. 4) which is rigidly secured or welded in place and contains anti-friction bearings 30-3I engaging shouldered sections of the spindle. 'I'he upper bearing30 supports the rotor weight while the lower bearing 3|, against which locking nuts 32 are turned up on the spindle end, resists upward thrust. 'I'he upper end of the spindle projects through a dust seal and retaining cap Il above the strut member 2l. and is reduced and threaded, as at 3B, to enter a center opening Il in the lower rotor plate il. Nuts 31 are turned down upon this end of the spindle to rigidly fasten the rotor thereto anda locking washerlis interposed between the nuts.

' The center oi' the underside o! the wear plate 25 is recessed at!! Vto clearthe nuts 31 and this neath the opening to receive the product falling therefrom.

Ordinarily the breaker is used in combination with a primary crusher which delivers the'raw material but it is obvious that the breaker may be used alone or in various combinations for primary or secondary reduction of the material.

L The radial discharge of the raw material from drive gear Il mounted upon a horizontally ar- Y ranged drive shaft 42. These parts are enclosed within a dust tight, diametrically extending gear housing securedbeneath the strut member 28 and said lhousing has cross plates 44 supporting bearings Il for the drive shaft l2. A bearing 4l in the side ofthe casing l passes the shaft outwardly and a drive pulley I1 is placed on the exposed end for connection to the power unit (not here shown). Obviously the housing I3 will exclude dust from the driving gears but inspection may be made through an opening I8 in the housing bottoml ll by removing its cover or door lili. 'I'he bearing construction for the spindle further excludes dust and the like from the spindle itself. Any suitable provision may be made for the lubrication ofthe working parts and the drive itself may be by chain or belt, instead of gears,

as may be desired.

A stationary breaker element is also provided and comprises an annular anvil or breaker ring BI of manganese steel or other suitable wear resistant material and same is secured around the interior of the casing 6 surrounding the rotor Il. Preferably this member il is made in sections, as indicated at B2 in Fig. 3, and it is securedin place by bolts Il having their heads Il deeply countersunk (Fig. l) and their outer ends extended through both the casing wall and the band i for receiving the nuts 55. It will be noted that the diameter of the rotor I8 is such v that a considerable annular space is present between its outer edge andthe breaker ring just described. Also the vertical height or width ot the breakerv ring is substantially greater than that of the rotor itself as clearly appears in Fig. 1.

In operation the rotor, or moving element I8, is rotated at high speed by the connection thereto of apower unit of suitable kind and power and the raw material is fed\. through the opening I9 into the center of the rotor. The effect of centrifugal forces is then causedto throw the particles or rocks outward in a radial direction fromV the rotor, the upwardly convexed center 28 of the wear plate 25 aiding in starting the particles in an outward direction as will be evident. The

vanes 2l guide the material, forming chutes for its passage and by such guidance prevent the material from being discharged from ythe rotor in tangential directions as would otherwise occur.

As the material is discharged from the rotor it strikes the surrounding anvil or breaker ring 5I with great force and' momentum and is broken or shattered by the impact, the fragments then Ifalling downwardly from the ring around the sides of the strut 28 and housing 43 and through the discharge opening 9. A receptacle or conveyor (neither here shown) may be arranged be- .'the rotor causes the particles or rocks to strike the anvil member Il at right angles to the 'sur .face at the point of contact therewith. This is important in that there is `then no rubbing or sliding contact between material and anvil and, since managanese steel and similar materials are not subject to wear from sharpblows but only from frictional contact, the use life of the anvil is thus greatly increased. Of equal, or greater,

importance is the fact that since no rubbing con-` tact thus occurs there cany be formed no metal deposit on the material crushed by the anvil. In certain types oi' work for which crushed rock products are used this metaldeposit, commonly found wherever the rock is crushed by pressure or friction contact with the metal crushing surfaces,v is very undesirable.

In connection with the above, attention iscalled to the fact that in my breaker the moving elements (rotor It) is in no sense of the word a crushing means, but instead functions only as a transmitter or impeiler for casting the materiai'agains't the stationary element (anvil ring o wear plate and vanes) do not, as stated, have any crushing eifect.

The impact and impingement of the rock or other similar material on the anvil member has a novel crushing effect insofar as mechanical crushing actions are concerned. Each particle as it strikes the anvil breaks along its normal lines of cleavage, or with the grain, preventing excessive shattering, reducing the amount of dust and fines formed, and causing a nicely cubedv product to result which is particularly suited to some work, such as' for use in concrete. Oversize material in the product is usually screened out and returned to the breaker for recirculation therethrough but these returned particles, even though smaller than the raw material, are not shattered to dust as might be thought. Instead. since they have less weight, they meet the anvil with less force than the larger particles and are only nicely reduced to the desired size.

, The position of the vanes 2l in the rotor is important since they. to a large extent, guide the material outward in a straight line against the anvil member as previously described. 'I'he speed of rotation is also important in this connection since variation in this speedl not only will control the force with which the material is thrown from the rotor, and hence the size of the product, but will vary the angle or line at which the material is thrown. I therefore employ the tie bolts 22 at the inner ends of the vanes as pivots and form arcuate notches 56 in the upper .v and lower rotor plates I1 and Il and wear plate side of exact radial lines and thus may be changed in position to suit the speed of the rotor and to guide the material at that speed so that it will strike the anvil a direct blow. Any number of vanes may, of course, be used either more or less than the four here shown. It is important, however, that the rotor be balanced since the power required and vibration and wear on the parts will be reduced.

Instead of the radially extending vanes previously described I may employ a rotor structure such as shown in Fig. wherein only two vanes 51 and 58 are used and they are extended as chords to the circular margins of the upper l and lower rotor plates I1 and I8 and wear plate 25, and tangentially with respect to the circular receiving opening I9 in the upper plate. 'I'hese vanes 51 and 58 extend the full width of the rotor in substantially parallel positions and thus form and define a diametrically extending chute or passage 59 opening at opposite sides of the rotor. The material entering the opening I9 will be deflected by the vanes and directed outward in a radial direction through the open ends of the chute to strike the anvil the desirable straight or direct blow hereinbefore referred to.

Since the material will strike the vanes,I as thus disposed, at their centers and at oblique angles the Wear on the vanes isless than that on the radially disposed vanes 2l. Only one side of the vanes 51 and 58 is worn at a time and they may be reversed to present a new side if desired or these centers may be made thicker to stand more wear.

'I'he vanes are mounted at their ends'by upright tie bolts 60 which extend through registering openings in the rotor'plates, wear plates and the vanes themselves. The openings for the bolts at opposite ends of the vrespective `vanes may be slotted as at 6I to permit angular adjustments of the vanes to compensate for speed changes in the rotor as previously described. The sides of the rotor, between the open ends of the chute 59, are closed by arcuate baille plates 62 secured between upper and lower rotor plates and thus concealing the unused sides of the vanes and preventing fan action of such sides which would interfere with operation of the rotor.

To aid in the exclusion of dust from the rotor bearing structure the underside of the rotor may, as shown in Fig. 1, carry depending, radially extending ian blades or fins 63 which will fan air outwardly beneath the rotor to carry dust away from the bearings.

Attention is directed to the fact that the moving element or rotor I6 operates in a horizontal plane and discharges the material outwardly in horizontal lines evenly in all directions. 'I'he moving part is thus evenly balanced whether operating under load or running empty, Due to the well nigh perfect balance thus obtained the machine may be made much lighter in weight than unbalanced machines, wear will be reduced, and the power required to operate it will be materially lowered. A

It will be noted that the band III on the outside oi' the casing 8 backs up and reinforces the casing preventing swelling thereof under the force of the blows struck the anvil ring by the material.

From the foregoing it will be apparent that I have provided an extremely simple, inexpensive, compact and light machine capable of high output of nished product with low driving power requirements.

It is understood that suitable modications may be made in the structure as disclosed, provided such modifications come within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Having now therefore fully illustrated and described my invention, what I claim to be new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:y

l. In a device of the character described, an annular anvil member and a rotor mounted for rotation therein to receive material and discharge it outwardly against the anvil member, the said rotor member including a pair of vanes of substantially the same length disposed crosswise and in spaced relation at each side of the center of the rotor member to forma diametrically extending passageway opening at its ends at opposite sides of the rotor, and each vane being pivotally mounted at one end for swinging adjustments at its opposite end with respect to the corresponding end of the other vane.

2. In a device of the character described and including an anvil member and a rotor supported for rotation therewithin to receive material and discharge the same centrifugally against the anvil member, a pair ofvanes disposed transversely across the rotor in substantially parallel relation and extending from side to side thereof to form a diametrically extending passageway for the material, each vane being pivotally supported at one end for adjustments at its other end toward and away from the corresponding end of the other, the pivoted end of each of the respective vanes being disposed adjacent the adjustable end of the other whereby the vanes will remain in substantially parallel relation when adjusted toward and away from each other at their ends.

3. In a device of the character described and including an annular anvil member and a rotor supported for rotation therein to receive and discharge material outwardly against the anvil member, the said rotor comprising upper and lower plates and the upper plate having a center opening to receive the material, a pair of vanes disposed crosswise in the rotor between the upper and lower plates thereof and at opposite sides of the center opening whereby the material received through the opening will be received in the space between the vanes and` directed outwardly for discharge at opposite sides of the rotor, each vane being pivoted about an upright axis at one of its ends for swinging adjustments at its other end toward and away from the end'of the other vane to thereby vary the width of the passageway between the vanes, the pivoted end oi each vane being disposed adjacent to the adjustable end of the other,the said adjustable ends of the vanes having upright bolts, and the upper and lower plates of the rotor having arcuate slotsthrough which the bolts extend for adjusting the vanes.

STEPHEN J. MORRIBSEY. 

